Yesterday, we saw another instalment of the biggest showpiece on the NBA calendar, the NBA All-Stars match.
While the match isn’t known for its seriousness, the amount of money it makes and popularity it brings to the game of basketball is incredible.
Should Australia’s NBL have an all-stars game?
It was another sell-out, this time in Toronto for the NBA All-Stars as the west put 196 points on the board, to defeat the east by 23. The NBA All-Stars have virtually been sold out every single year, and hold the Guiness World Record for biggest attendance at an indoor sporting event.
For anyone interested, that record is officially posted as 108,713 at the Cowboys NFL stadium in Dallas, for the 2010 match, as Dwayne Wade led the Eastern Conference All-Stars to a two-point win.
While I am not for a minute suggesting the NBL could draw any crowd of that nature, or even play the game outside of a specialised indoor sporting arena, there are many advantages for the much revamped NBL, if they were to have yet another shot at pulling of the All-Stars match.
Before we get into the nitty gritty, and attempt to understand the advantages of such a match, or what the format of it could be, it is worth going back and having a look at all the previous NBL All-Stars matches, and why they may not have worked, or why the concept in fact was, and has been cancelled a number of times previously.
The first time the NBL All-Stars were trialled, was back in 1982, with an east versus west game, similar to that of the NBA’s showpiece event. After that though, there was six-year hiatus in the concept, with it returning in 1988, as a north versus south game. This, was played four years in a row, with three of those in Victoria at the Glass House.
While the concept wasn’t thrown on the scrapheap after that, it went through different forms, including Australia versus USA, NBL versus Australia and then back to a north versus south concept all the way until it was cancelled in 1997, with the final game played at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
Another long break then appeared in the concept, with it returning in the 2002-03 season as a west versus east game. It would be replaced the following season by a concept that looked like it might be able to work, and stay for the long term as the Aussies took on the World. That lasted for four seasons, through to 2007-08 before it to, was thrown on the scrapheap.
Since then there has only been one NBL All-Stars game, in the 2012-13 season as the south defeated the north.
Myself, I remember attending the 2005-06 game at the Sydney Entertainment Centre between the Aussies and the World, and the match was one of the main reasons I began to follow basketball and the NBL. It was high paced, free flowing and all attacking basketball as the Aussies ran up 152 points. At the time, as a child I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and the crazy amounts of points that were being put up.
While I might have come to realise, rather quickly that not every NBL game would be played in the same free-flowing, attacking style it was still what got me into basketball.
The NBL must somehow appeal to families and children. This is so that, if the NBL really does find its feet again, it has another generation of support coming through, and the league can sustain it self in the long run.
The ‘boom’ the NBL is going through at the moment, is not dissimilar to the nineties, but this time, the NBL has to make it work.
The only way to make it work, is to get a growing fan-base, and one of the best ways to do this is through an attacking exhibition game, where entertainment and value for money is second to none.
Despite the fact an All-Stars game would be huge in getting new fans to the code and the NBL, it is also worth noting that a lot of fans have tuned out of the NBL in recent seasons due to the limited coverage and how hard the league was to follow. I’ll admit straight up that I was one of them.
An All-Stars game, especially if it was broadcast on Free To Air TV has the potential to bring back a lot of these old fans, edge them into the NBL and then get them watching, attending and supporting regular season matches again.
Mentioning the broadcasting brings me to my next point. The All-Stars could be sold as a separate broadcasting contract, obviously to be simulcast with Fox Sports. The NBL, of course must do everything in its power to keep Fox Sports onside, who are broadcasting every game for the first time ever this season.
But selling the All-Stars game as a separate FTA deal, should see it advertised appropriately in the lead up, and covered well.
An All-Stars game, could also help to improve the quality of the league as a whole. A weekend off mid-season, would allow teams to get back onto the practice court, and work on things that haven’t gone right over the first half of the season.
Teams like the Cairns Taipans, Sydney Kings and Townsville Crocodiles could have really used that this season.
So, what concept could the NBL All-Stars game take? It has tried many in the past and none have stuck around for ever, so if it was re-introduced a concept needs to be found that works, and will stick for the long term.
Based on the quality of imports this season, the first one that comes to mind is an Australia taking on ‘the World’ game. This, could work to the advantage of the Australian national team – the Boomers as well. Despite the amount of Australian talent in the NBA, there are still spots up for grabs from the NBL.
The problem with basing the game on location of teams, for example east taking on west is that the NBL is a league that has never been overly stable. While stability of clubs is the way forward, expansion is also on the mind and that could quickly ruin that idea. If the teams had to be changed after only two or three seasons, then the validity of the event in the minds of the Australian public is going to go out the back door.
The next question, where to play the game? While we know that places like Adelaide, Perth and Auckland are basketball hotspots, the three big centres in Australia, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane are not.
Melbourne have done a great job getting crowds, but Sydney have struggled, and Brisbane don’t even have a team, with plenty of questions about how they will perform next year, in terms of crowds.
For this reason, they have to be the most obvious location to host a potential All-Stars game in the next few years. Here in Sydney, people love an event, and the novelty of things, which is also the case in Brisbane and Melbourne.
All have big arenas to play the game in, with the Sydney Superdone (AllPhones Arena), Rod Laver Arena or the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
It’s just a thought, but for a league aiming for rapid expansion and trying to increase viewership and support, an All-Stars game could be just the way to go about it.
I for one, would attend a game with the best in the NBL taking on each other in a heartbeat.
Roarers, what do you think of the idea? Should the NBL give the All-Stars concept one more shot?
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